Neither God Nor Angel

Warning! If you are easily offended by strong language the first lines of this play are peppered with much effing and blinding, but mainly effing. King JamesVI of Scotland, in Holyrood on the day before he is due to travel south to become James The First of both England and Scotland, has discovered that England, like Scotland, is in financial ruin.

He is now in a quandary, does he stay in Scotland as an unloved ruler, or does he head for the unknown of the English court? After several bottles of wine he’s the worse for wear and to his displeasure he can’t find anyone to bring him more.

Cue streetwise simpleton William who has come into the king’s chambers thinking there might be something worthwhile pinching now that James has gone. Unfortunately he’s a day too early but is luckily spared the chopper as he knows the whereabouts of the last available bottle of booze.

Jimmy Chisholm as the dyspeptic and drunken JamesVI and Gavin Jon Wright as goofy William are perfect comedy foils and play their parts to the hilt.

Written by Tim Barrow and ably directed by Ryan Alexander Dewar, the language is a strange mixture of cod-Elizabethan and Glasgow/Edinburgh patter, but effective in the context of the piece.

The play touches on the familiar themes of the loneliness and fallibility of being an absolute ruler, the financial misdeeds of the banking sector (a major problem even then) and the gap between the haves and the have-nots in society, albeit in a light-hearted way.

Shakespeare it’s not, but it was certainly an entertaining way to spend an hour at Oran Mor. Recommended.